Arts venue Cambridge Junction warns its future will be ‘in jeopardy’ if city council funding is cut

One of Cambridge’s leading arts venues has warned its future would be “in jeopardy” if its municipal funding was cut.

A reduction of 25 per cent in the grants budget for community, cultural and sporting organisations was approved by the city council yesterday and this included the removal of the ring-fenced £86,890 annual subsidy for Cambridge Junction. In future the Cambridge Leisure Park attraction will have to go through the same bidding process as about 150 other organisations.

In a letter, Cambridge Junction said its council funding had already been reduced by 30 per cent over the last three years and that further reductions could push it over the edge.

The letter, sent to the council, said: “A self-supporting business model is an ambition rather than a current reality. Currently, if Cambridge City Council reduces our grant, our future will be in jeopardy.

“In the short term we will have to reduce the non-commercial activity such as our support for young people and those at risk of social exclusion, reduce our support for local artists, and raise our ticket prices. In the long term the result of reducing our engagement programme could lead to loss of Arts Council England funding and ultimately closure.”

At a meeting of the community services committee, Liberal Democrat councillors proposed that a decision on the future of Cambridge Junction’s grant should be deferred until its impact could be reviewed.

Cllr Richard Johnson, the executive councillor, responded that new criteria for grants prioritised support for the most vulnerable, arguing Cambridge Junction would be able to bid strongly on this basis.

He added: “In the constrained financial environment we exist in, each application has got to be judged on its own merits on the criteria we are putting forward.”

The overall annual budget has been reduced from £1.2 million to £900,000, which remains the largest of any local authority in the east of England.